Aaron62

Orrymain

The cost is exactly why reality shows are popular. You nailed it on the head, and the networks are the first to admit it. That's why shows end after 5 years, too -- salary negotiation time, unless the show is just a megahit or the cast is cheap for some reason.

Re: the reality part of it, I remember the big villain from Big Brother has continued to say he's not really like the master manipulator he played on the show, that it was all an act. I think he's lying and he's exactly who we saw on the show. I think that while who they are out in the middle of the show's theme pulls out a piece of them that is probably kept hidden most of the time, but it's still them.

DTVuser2009

I wish Survivor and American Idol would DIE. they're so played out and they weren't that good to begin with.

I love Cartoon Network's way of playing fun with them with 'Total Drama Island'

You want 'real' tv? watch the news and/or weather. that's all local and REAL. or get a life and go outside and play folks!

Reality TV or any variation is a waste of great TV airtime plus pollution in the schedule.

What i never understood is those reality series' like 'Harper's Island' or '13 Fear is Real' i know people would do anything for money but do they really die in those shows? i know it sounds stupid but i don't know how they would pull it off seeing as unlike a movie it's not taped nor using special effects editing since it's recorded as it happens. plus they never seem to convey what happens after. i wouldn't be too surprised what with the way society is falling below the evolutionary level of gorillas today.

bicker

Uh, Harper's Island is a scripted drama.

The fact is that many people enjoy watching other people making fools of themselves (the reality genre) or strive for something (the AI/Survivor genre), which is the context of many of the reality shows out there. They are less expensive to produce, and yet still get great ratings (i.e., there are still a lot of people who like to watch the shows). Essentially, these shows are represent more effective use of the public airwaves. We don't have to like it.

People who like reality shows don't necessarily want to watch news or weather instead. It isn't anything close to the same. I'm not sure why you would even suggest that.

I think the key aspect of all this is recognition that not one of us the be-all and end-all of television viewer in this country. We are each just one person. Everyone has inherent worth and dignity, and therefore their preferences and proclivities are as worthy of respect as our own. Dismissal of the viewing preferences of others as in some way less than one's own is disrespectful, and thereby inappropriate.

DTVuser2009

News/weather is REAL and not scripted. 'Reality' TV is hardly real. i mean on Survivor do you really believe they stick people there and leave them the way the Military does in training for 'survival?' no way in hell. because that would be cruel. or some moral issue. but it makes it so fake. what do they do off-camera? eat a three course meal? have a home to go to? it's not real.

Plus it's taken so much of the schedule today that the whole point of tv in the first place, to divert from reality, is going the way of the dinosaur.

If i wanted to watch people make fools of themselves i'd either buy a blooper video or go on Youtube and watch all of them make fools of themselves. on a sitcom, which is most definitely fake, it's funny. but in real life or any simulation of, it's not funny. seeing it on TV is ok but when it's real it is no longer fun to watch. because i see enough stupid people in the world that if not for government protection from themselves the laws of nature would weed them out and leave the intelligent around to benefit society instead of rot it.

the whole reason for reality shows is because some suit in Hollywood has run out of imagination for new sitcoms where sex and toilet humor don't have to exist to make a wholesome, witty, and funny show.

Shows like American Idol are stupid because i hear enough junk on FM radio that wouldn't even make the cut for an AI Audition yet apparently are making millions anyways. the show serves no useful purpose other than variating the theme of most popularity contests, like Miss USA to the point that people don't even realize that popularity isn't anything other than following the herd and not thinking on one's self. the whole issue with popularity sickens me. people want to be something they cannot be. perfect.

bicker

Which is probably why many people don't find it as entertaining. That was my point.

Well, it is real, as compared to scripted dramas. If an actor plays a real creep in a movie, you don't assume that the actor is a real creep, do you? But is someone on a reality television program comes across as a real creep, then you can safely assume that the person is probably at least partially creepy IRL. That's what it means for the programming to be in the reality genre: The people you're watching aren't playing someone else -- they're basically being themselves, with the only modification of that is that they know they're on camera. That's it. It isn't an inconsequential difference, but it is a small one as compared to the difference between a character on a scripted drama and a participant on a reality television program.

That's not what Survivor is all about. I think you're allowing yourself to be confused by the title of the program. Program titles need to be relatively short. Could you imagine what TV Guide would look like if every program title had to completely match, with lexicographical perfection, what the program actually was all about. Beyond that, program titles, and promotional advertisements are intended to attract viewers to the program. While they don't lie, like all promotional advertisement, they extol the good things. That's by design. Not only would another approach result in less viewers (which is the opposite of the objective, eh?), but would also come across very strange. Why would anyone think that a program would promote itself in a negative manner? That doesn't make sense.

Now you're just making stuff up. They don't do things "off-camera" like you suggest. That's a scurrilous and baseless accusation against the producers, the networks and the participants. Is it Paris Island? No. It is tough, though pretty-much as tough as it appears on camera.

There is no justifiable foundation for you which you to assert that that kind of deception is going on. Remember, participants in the first season of Survivor are long past the gag order of their contracts: If there was that kind of deception going on, you'd not only see proof presented in the media, but you'd see Mark Burnett going to jail, by now.

The whole point of television is to divert us away from our reality. When I watched Survivor, I watched from the comfort of my couch at home. Those people were going through what they were going through for my entertainment, as part of my leisure.

That programming takes up so much of the schedule today because so many people enjoy it. It sucks to be in a minority -- take it from me -- but the reality of being in a pluralistic society is that reasonable people will disagree, and that's okay. Everyone's leisure preferences deserve equal respect, because each person deserves equal respect.

No, the whole reason for reality shows is because enough people find them enjoyable, and more importantly, such programming is less expensive to produce and the American television viewer is unwilling to reward scripted programming at a rate commensurate with its added cost. If you want to direct some vitriol at someone for this scourge you see, direct it at the American television viewer who is too cheap to spend $10 per month per channel family, to subsidize 15 hours of original, scripted programming per channel family.

I don't watch any reality shows anymore, not even American Idol, but I think it is remarkably disrespectful to so categorically condemn-by-proxy the people who enjoy that type of programming. Just because we don't like something doesn't make us right and someone else wrong. Entertainment is very much a matter of personal taste, and no one's taste is superior to anyone else's.

Aaron62

I think you were directing that at DTVuser, but I wanted to make it clear that the intent of my thread was to question the so called reality of some reality TV shows.

While I agree completely about junk on the radio, I do think that American Idol has properly earned it's self a top place TV history. I mean, we the viewer are taken on a journey each season as Simon, Paula, and Randy choose from thousands of contestants (some not so good). This season has been full of drama, though most of it could be questionably scripted...I find the whole process of elimination fascinating on that show. and all the while, contestants are honing their skills each week to survive and sing for another show.

Mockingbird

I'm getting tired of reality TV. I like to watch TV to escape reality. Give me a good old fashion sit com anyday. Or maybe good movie. Even repeats are better then reality TV

DTVuser2009

I have no issues with those who enjoy reality television. but there's some who do NOT want to see it take up 90% of the schedule nor have their favorites preempted by the show going through a week-long marathon, just as some who don't like seeing sports dominate the TV during championships and rather it have its own channel or have it in moderation.

Reality shows even take up a vast majority of paid-services like Dish Network. on channels such as TV Land, which is for those who love old TV shows, reality TV does NOT belong. the premise of a channel which revolves around a theme, such as classic television should show classic television. not reality 'new' TV.

Survivor surely makes it appear as though they're in a survival course, with the promos showing tigers showing fangs, pumping up drama between the contestants, sure. it looks rather interesting to watch. but when you actually watch it, it just goes on and on with the crap plus there's no action. it's like a movie preview that seems interesting but when you get your ticket and sit down, it sucks 5 mins into it and never what you expected it to be.

If you like Reality TV, fine. just don't deny those few the opportunity to watch something different once in a while. as you correctly stated, some like it, some don't. it's like technology, some like being the first to have every new gadget, some see no logical sense in spending money on something they may not need.

Plus reality TV is all fun until they play the same theme over and over like watching a rerun over and over. it gets old very quick.

Survivor was ok the first two times. then it got old and played out. i mean how many re-creations of Power Rangers were done? how interesting was it to see 10 spin-offs of it? same with Survivor and American Idol. after 5-10 times it is no longer new and the novelty wears off.

I mean in Survivor's case, it was so done that you'd see references of it show up on shows like Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius (they parodied the 'Tribal Council') and American Idol was done on All That (American Idiot, which i'd find it very interesting myself lol) and The Fairly Oddparents (Fairy Idol) and in fact AI was the most parodied recently. even on iCarly once.

That's the only reason i like Reality TV, because it gets humorously made fun of on shows i actually watch. AI is only watchable to me for Simon, since he's so honest and funny at the same time. but sadly everyone hates him. Randy Jackson is overusing ebonics IMO. and Paula is too nice.

bicker

They're not. We fans of scripted dramas are doing that to ourselves. We have no one to blame but ourselves. If there were more of us, and we watched commercials more, and bought more stuff because we watched commercials, then commercial television would pander to our needs more.

One of the things we Americans need to do, in general, is stop looking to others to assess blame for what we don't like, but rather start pointing the fingers at ourselves, at our actions, at our perspectives, at our choices -- far more often than we're willing to admit, that's where the fault really rests.